Ebook The Many Faces of Normativity mobi,epub

s it may, the continuing debate over normativity remains a constant source of philosophical inspiration and controversy. It is not surprising, considering the issue at stake: the problem of normativity is closely linked with the most pressing questions in the history of philosophy, such as those pertaining to the relation between facts and norms, the character of moral duty, or the nature of law or language. The goal of the present collection is to examine the phenomenon of normativity from various perspectives. The essays are divided into three groups. Part I, Foundations of Normativity, addresses the most basic questions connected with the concept of normativity. Robert Audi in "The Nature of Normativity and the Project of Naturalizing the Normative" provides an analysis of the issues surrounding normativity, as well as the possibility of naturalizing normative concepts. In particular, he examines the reasons behind such a naturalization project, the various models of naturalization, as well as some issues connected with moral perception and moral reasoning. He defends the claim that only a part of the normative knowledge may be subject to naturalization, for although moral properties are anchored in the physical world, they may not be fully reducible to it. Jan Woleńskis paper "Some Analogies Between Normative and Epistemic Discourse" is devoted to an examination of the formal properties of alethic, epistemic and normative notions. By utilizing some generalizations of the logical square, he uncovers striking formal similarities between normative and epistemic concepts, leading to the claim that epistemic modals are, in a certain sense, normative. Woleński suggests that the proper way to understand this conclusion is to admit that the normativity of knowledge arises as a result of the normativity of justification; he warns, however, that this stance may give rise to further theoretical problems. Jaap Hage in "The Deontic Furniture of the World. An Analysis of the Basic Concepts that Embody Normativity" analyzes various types of rules and the differences between rules and facts. He attempts to explain the nature of normativity by addressing the relations between motivating and guiding reasons. Furthermore, he examines such notions as duty, obligation, being obliged and ought-to-do, claiming that there is a clear difference between duties and obligations and neither one of them is an ought. Anna Brożek in her essay "The Naturalistic Fallacy From the Methodological Point of View" examines the two famous formulations of the naturalistic fallacy attributed to Hume and Moore. With recourse to various semiotic and formal tools, she attempts to show that both the Humean and Moorean arguments are inconclusive, having only historical value today. A counterpoint to her contribution is provided by Jerzy Stelmachs "The Naturalistic and Antinaturalistic Fallacies in Normative Discourse", where he observes that the acceptance of the dualism of Is-Ought leads to a theoretically hopeless situation, in which one is destined to commit either the naturalistic or the antinaturalistic fallacy. Stelmach claims further that the only way out of this impasse is to embrace a radically monistic and nominalistic ontology. Part II, Key Debates, is devoted to some of the most heated controversies surrounding the notion of normativity. Bartosz Brożek, in "The Normativity of Meaning", examines the traditional approaches to the problem of the normativity in language and claims that they all assume a formal view of language, one that is not compatible with the findings of contemporary linguistics, psychology, evolutionary theory and neuroscience. He suggests that by replacing the formal view of language with the embedded view, one is in a position to explain and reconcile seemingly contradictory stances towards the normativity of meaning. A similar line of argument is offered by Aeddan Shaw in "The Perspectivist Account of the Normativity of Meaning Debate", where he claims - on the basis of recent findings in linguistics - that language can be reconstructed theoretically in many ways, giving rise to differing accounts of languages normativity. Mateusz Hohol, in "The Normativity of Mathematics. A Neurocognitive Approach", first examines the normative dimension of mathematics against the backdrop of the two traditional philosophies of mathematics, , Platonism and formalism, indicating that they are not capable of accounting for the normative dimension of mathematical reasoning. He further claims that a satisfactory conception of mathematics can be constructed on the basis of the findings of cognitive neuroscience, where the normativity of mathematical thinking appears at the level of mathematical concepts which are embodied as well as embedded in social practices. Marcin Gorazdas essay "Normativity According to Hayek" provides an overview of the conception of normativity developed by Friedrich August von Hayek. Gorazda compares Hayeks